Raman Pratasevich, a Belarusian journalist who was detained in 2021 after the commercial flight he was on was forced to land in Minsk, has gone on trial in the high-profile case against the Poland-based Nexta Live Telegram channel.
Nexta Live extensively covered the unprecedented protests against the official results of an August 2020 presidential election that the opposition and the West say was rigged.
The Minsk regional court started the trial on February 16 of Pratasevich and his two co-defendants, who are being tried in absentia: the Nexta Live Telegram channel's founders, Stsyapan Putsila and Yan Rudzik.
The defendants are charged with forming and leading an extremist group, insulting strongman leader Alyaksandr Lukashenka, plotting to seize power through unconstitutional means, discrediting Belarus, financing extremist activities, inciting social hatred, organizing mass disorders, conducting acts of terrorism, and other actions aimed to undermine national security.
Putsila was additionally charged with orchestrating the activities of a terrorist organization.
State-run media reported that Pratasevich pleaded guilty to all charges. If convicted, the men may face up to 15 years in prison.
The Prosecutor-General’s Office also said the defendants must pay 30 million rubles (almost $11.9 million) to cover what were labeled as damages that Nexta had inflicted on Belarus.
Pratasevich, who used to work as an editor and a key administrator of the Nexta Live channel on Telegram, fled Belarus in 2019.
In May 2021, he and his then-girlfriend, Russian citizen Sofia Sapega, were arrested after their commercial flight from Greece to Lithuania was forced to land in Minsk.
Belarus said it had ordered the plane to land after an anonymous bomb threat. Evidence later revealed Belarusian officials had conspired to fake the bomb threat as a pretense for diverting the plane so they could detain the two.
Sapega was accused of administering a channel on Telegram that published the personal data of Belarusian security forces and sentenced to six years in prison in May 2022.
Pratasevich made several appearances on Belarusian state television in 2021 that prompted the opposition and Western officials to accuse Lukashenka and his regime of extracting video confessions through torture.
In 2017-18, Pratasevich was a Vaclav Havel Journalism fellow in Prague. The Vaclav Havel Journalism Fellowship -- a joint initiative of RFE/RL and the Czech Foreign Ministry -- has been available to aspiring independent journalists in the EU's Eastern Partnership countries and Russia. Pratasevich did not work for RFE/RL either before or after obtaining the fellowship.
Lukashenka has denied stealing the election and has since cracked down hard on the opposition, whose leading members were jailed or forced to flee the country in fear of their safety.